Noise Reduction

The shot was taken in diminishing light . There was tall grass in the line of the bird and had a tough time getting the tripod steady enough to get the best possible shot . The image is quite noisy . How best to process this image .

Canon 50D, 840mm, f/11, 1/800, ISO 800, +1/3 EC

From a tech standpoint f/11 was probably more than enough DOF. You could have opened up to f/7.1 and dropped your ISO quite a bit. Here's a repost with some NR on the BG, and a combination of a contrast boost, some sharpening, and some selective NR on the bird. I also darkened the BG a little. What do you think?

Doug's repost looks much better. Nice soft light and HA. Fine feather detail seems a bit lacking. Do note that with the 50D, it really helps to expose to the right when working at higher ISO values.

I think Doug 's version improves it all around I'd tried to do the same but my version was nowhere near as good...especially when I saw Dougs...

I went totally OOTB with this, removed leaves brightened up background. But image even more noisy..still haven't got that part right.

Doug, what are the specifics on how you applied noise reduction? Thanks.

Beautiful bird here and captured well. It turn good for you.

Here is my try at pp correction.
A couple of passes (mild) with a NR Action I have.
Mid-tone adjustment with USM layer (masked and brushed)
Curves (S) on layer reduced in opacity to 85%
Sharpening with more to dark the light pixels on Layer (masked and brushed)

http://upload.pbase.com/image/120607635/original.jpg

Edit: The image was a bit hard to work in low bit resolution without getting posterization in the sky. The NR Action I used is for PS7 or CS programs and works well on some images, at other times I use NeatImage Pro. If anyone would like the NR Action I would be glad to send it, just contact me with a personal email addy and I will forward it with instructions.

Nonnie, Can you please show us the original capture. I would like to see how much of a crop this is. Thanks. If you need help doing that, please ask.

Thank you Doug for your time to have look and reprocess the image . No doubt it looks much better than my post . Thats why I am here , to learn .

Aidan, Thanks for your point , I will try your suggestion on the exposure part .

I would have not posted this shot incase I wanted to put my best shoe forward . I feel this forum is different and sometimes I will see how to improve on shots gone wrong .

This is how I would process my shot .

Thanks Arthur for BPN .

I think it is a great learning curve for alot of us amateur photographers .

Here is the original as you had wished to see .

The Equipment used is Canon 50D + 600 F4 IS + 1.4X TC .